As at 30 June 2023, AFCA had 28,824 open cases. This was 62% more open cases than it had at the same time last year (AFCA had 17,826 open cases on 30 June 2022).

This was not unexpected given the surge in complaints AFCA received in the last financial year and the decline in early resolution by some sectors, including general insurance.

As at 30 June 2023, AFCA had 11,363 open cases in banking and finance, 7,953 open cases in general insurance, 2,585 open cases in superannuation, 5,220 open cases in investments and advice, and 1,670 open cases in life insurance.

Twenty-six per cent of open cases were less than 30 days old, while 17% were aged between 31 and 60 days. 

The number of complaints open at Case Management increased 86% this year.

We also saw a large increase in complaints needing an AFCA Rules Review. As at 30 June 2023, our Rules team had 1,593 open cases – a 124% increase over the last financial year. This large increase in volume put further pressure on our capacity to investigate these cases.

Because of these challenges and the delays they invariably caused, the number of unresolved cases lasting between 61–180 days and 181–365 days increased by 109% and 132%, respectively, over 2022–23.

Despite these challenges, the number of cases open for more than 365 days dropped slightly from 12% of all cases to 11%. Most (91%) of these cases were complaints that could not be progressed due to insolvency proceedings or ongoing court cases. (See Compensation Scheme of Last Resort for more about complaints against insolvent firms and the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort). Only 9% were matters that could be progressed.

For complex complaints that could be progressed, we have reduced the age profile from 2.4% of open cases as at 30 June 2022 to 0.9% as at 30 June 2023¹.

AFCA has been taking significant steps to increase its capacity to deal with the record number of complaints, including by actively recruiting and re-assigning staff to high-impact product areas, growing our staff profile from 860 in September 2022 to 1,026 by July 2023, batching complaints that lend themselves to being resolved by one defined approach, regularly communicating with complainants about the progress of their complaints, and investing in technology solutions to create greater efficiencies in parts of our process. AFCA also continues to prioritise vulnerable complainants. 

To ensure early and efficient dispute resolution, AFCA is also encouraging financial firms to look at ways to resolve complaints early, especially insurers. Early resolution is good for complainants and members, and enables AFCA to prioritise complex or particularly urgent complaints – such as those relating to financial hardship and consumers severely impacted by natural disasters.

While schemes like AFCA play an important role in dispute resolution, Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) is the first port of call and ensures better outcomes for consumers and industry. 

Increase in complaints requiring an AFCA investigation

When a complaint is submitted to AFCA, we first refer it back to the financial firm to see if they can resolve it with the customer directly. Financial firms generally have up to 30 days to respond. 

AFCA will progress a complaint to our Case Management stage if the financial firm takes over 30 days to respond or can’t resolve the issue, or if the complainant isn’t happy with the response.

In the 2022–23 financial year, 44,047 complaints progressed to Case Management, and so required an AFCA investigation. This was up 29% from 2021–22 when 34,233 complaints progressed.

In particular, AFCA saw a spike in the number of general insurance complaints that required an AFCA investigation this year. Insurance complaints that progressed to Case Management in 2022–23 grew by 52% (from 10,563 to 16,048). Many of these could have been resolved much earlier by insurers through IDR (see more about general insurance complaints).

Open cases at the end of the last 5 financial years

Open cases by age 

Open cases by stage of the process they are at 

Open cases by product type ²

Previous section - Overview of complaints

Next section - Closed cases